onsdag 13. juli 2016

To speak, talk and converse ...

As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. Acts 13:42

…and Paul and Barnabas did that, but they did not wait that long. Straight after the first sermon in Antioch, people began to follow them. May be they understood that Paul and Barnabas had found an answer to what they themselves were longing for? Luke tells that Paul and Barnabas “talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God” (v 43b). In my mind this is not “preaching” but rather conversation.

The encouragement to speak more does not mean that all believers are called to be preachers, but all believers are called to be witnesses about what they have seen and heard. The danger for all preachers is to fall into the trap were they do more of the “preaching to” than the “conversing with”. Both ways of communicating the gospel are important for the ministry, and both ways were definitely evident in the first church(1).

‘Manna’
for today:

It lays
on my heart to urge people to continue in the grace of God!

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(1) How
important the conversation was, is clearly seen in Paul’s ministry through the daily
discussions conducted in the school of Tyranus over two years. (Acts 19:8-10)